The present invention relates generally to rotary mowers used for severing standing crop material by impact action and, more particularly, to an improved disc cutterbar construction for use with disc mowers and disc mower-conditioners.
Disc cutterbars of the type utilizing a plurality of intermeshed gears to transfer rotational power to the rotatably supported disc cutters, have evolved over the years from a pair of hat-shaped sections sealingly fastened together for creating the transmission casing to a welded unitary elongated section of the type seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,443,998. This latter type of disc cutterbar casing is particularly susceptible to operational impediment due to damage to the casing because of the relatively close tolerances allotted to the rotating gears mounted within the casing.
The addition of further protective structure, such as wear plates and skid shoes, further detracts from the serviceability of such disc cutterbars. Nevertheless, such additional protective structure is important for the functional operation of the cutterbar, particularly when operating in abrasive soil conditions, including rocks and other obstacles. Eventually, however, the wearing parts of the cutterbar, e.g., the guard members, skid shoes, etc., will require replacement and serviceability then becomes of prime importance. It would be particularly advantangeous to the type of cutterbar seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,443,998 to permit serviceability of these structural elements without disturbing the mounting of the rotor assembly within the cutterbar. Since this particular cutterbar construction utilizes common fasteners for mounting the wearing members and the bearing housing for the disc cutter assemblies, it is necessary to remove these bolts to replace these wearing elements.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a disc cutterbar construction that would permit selective service of the disc cutter assemblies and/or the cutterbar protective members as needed.